Nerves
by Aria Illusine
Summary: AU Non-Massacre ItaSaku Oneshot-now with Epilogue! It's the day of the Academy graduation exam and Sakura is stressing out. Happily, a mysterious someone appears to calm her before the test....
1. Nerves

**A/N**: Ahahahah *sheepish laughter* so I was quite stressed out for studying for a final until yesterday...and then this scenario hit me with all the force of a freight-train riding plot bunny, so I spent two or three hours in the middle of the night roasting to death away in my closet writing this because my roommate and I had a guest on the couch and said roommate had a test this morning and I just COULDN'T stop writing!

This fic mostly stems from the fact that I, like Sakura in this story, do not like to be told I'll do fine on a test. Because really, do they know I'll do fine? Maybe I spent the day holed up in my room writing instead of studying like I was supposed to! Etc etc. I don't even like it when my best friend tells me I'll be okay (though for her I make an exception XD).

And I actually managed to write a not-in-a-totally-different-world-setting Naruto fic! Still an AU since it's non-massacre ItaSaku, but they're still ninja right? XD

Please enjoy!

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**Nerves**

"You'll be fine!"

"See you after your test, I'm sure you'll do great!"

"Hey, Forehead! That big dome of yours should get you through this thing, no problem, right?"

_Not you too Ino-pig,_ Sakura groaned mentally, finally retreating to the relative shelter of a nearby maple to escape the well-meaning well-wishers. _I _hate_ it when people tell me I'll be fine! They don't _know_ I'll be fine!_

The pounding in her ears, the thunder of her heartbeat, was loud and overpowering. Trembling all over with nerves and fear, she finally gave in to her childish urges and ducked out of sight behind the maple's trunk. Pressing her back hard against the rough bark, she bit her bottom lip and scrunched her eyes closed, hoping that if she hid from the Academy building and couldn't see it...

"Maybe it'll go away..."

Sakura sighed as she opened her eyes and let herself slide to the grass, drawing her knees up to her chest. Hoping the Academy and her upcoming pre-genin exit exam would disappear because she hid behind a maple and closed her eyes wasn't just childish and ridiculous; it was stupid. Her brain could hardly let her believe that something she had spent the last week and a half studying for didn't actually exist.

"But I don't like it when people tell me I'll be fine," Sakura muttered, her voice bordering on petulance. She felt at the age of twelve she was allowed to whine a little. "How do they know I'll be fine if they don't know how much I've studied or how well I remember the material?"

Her pink locks spilled over her pale cheeks as she let her forehead fall to her knees. "I _hate_ exams," she whispered, throat tight with stress and nervousness and a terrible urge to cry.

As her anxiety finally reached a peak, fat teardrops beginning to run down cheeks turning crimson with chagrin, a noise to her left raised her head with a jerk.

* * *

_Itachi-kun._

_ "The report from our latest mission, Hokage-sama," the seventeen-year-old ANBU captain said, handing over the thin sheaf of papers that chronicled the last three weeks in the lives of his team._

_ The Third nodded, accepting the crisp papers. There was no need for questions; every ANBU captain was trained to write their accounts quickly and efficiently during times when they weren't fleeing from pursuit, a lesson that stuck well even when the learner was a silver-haired chronically late ninja._

Though he apparently hasn't been too good about that now that he's put aside his ANBU vest, _the Hokage thought to himself, feeling the urge to massage his aching temples. He didn't have time to waste now thinking about Kakashi when he had another ANBU captain in his office._

_ "And the news is," the old man prompted as he leafed through the unsullied paper sheets._

_ "No danger to the village, but we might want to send periodic patrols by every few months just in case the situation escalates," Itachi replied confidently. "I would say they qualify as B-rank missions but nothing more."_

_ "Mm," the Hokage murmured noncommittally, surreptitiously watching the boy from under his broad-brimmed hat, the symbol of his office._

_ He was dressed in the standard ANBU outfit; a skintight high-collared black sleeveless under dull-grey vest, nicked in places from previous battles, nondescript black pants and arm-guards complete with metal gauntlets running the length of his forearms, and the squad issue ninjato strapped to his back. The spiral tattoo on his left shoulder and the porcelain mask, pushed up to rest somewhat rakishly on his head, completed the picture. A small streak of blood smeared the teenager's left cheek._

_ Sarutobi raised an eyebrow questioningly._

_ "It's not mine, Hokage-sama," Itachi replied to the unspoken query. "On our way home a group of Kiri-nin decided to try us; I would have washed up before coming but I thought you'd like the report sooner rather than later."_

_ "Thank you, Itachi-kun."_

_ The young ANBU captain was already turning to go when the Hokage stopped him with a question._

_ "Do you have any more missions lined up?"_

_ At the door, Itachi paused, his shoulders tensing imperceptibly at the unexpected interrogation. "No, Hokage-sama, I don't think my squad will be sent out for a few days...."_

_ "Ah really, well, don't let me detain you from your rest then," the old man remarked casually. "I, on the other hand, need to get a few things in order if I'm to appear at the Academy exit exam today."_

_ "The Academy exit exam, Hokage-sama?"_

_The young captain's tone was light and casual, as if he didn't quite care of the answer…but…._

_ Sarutobi smiled, the expression unseen behind the younger boy's back._

_ "Yes, I think the oldest of the pre-genin are taking their practicals today and Iruka-kun asked if I could help proctor. Apparently even the most rambunctious twelve-year-olds are politer when the Hokage is present." The man laughed, groaning a little as he got to his feet. "It's the robes and the hat," he confided with a grandfatherly grin. "They don't really care about me. Well, go get some rest and enjoy your days off."_

_ "Thank you, Hokage-sama," Itachi replied automatically, hearing the clear dismissal in the village leader's words._

Academy exit exams...Sasuke probably hasn't had his yet...

_If he hurried he could still make it in time to wish his brother good luck...._

_

* * *

  
_

He had washed and rushed to the Academy in record time, and now prowled the grounds hidden in the trees as he searched for his little brother's chakra signature, hoping Sasuke hadn't already taken his test. Rounding the Academy building's south face after another fruitless scan of that direction, he slowed and stopped among the concealing branches as something entirely un-Sasuke-related caught his attention.

It was hard to miss bright pink hair.

He recognized her, vaguely anyway, as one of the girls who occasionally visited the Uchiha compound. They were abundant especially during Christmas, Valentines, and Sasuke's birthday. While they could be somewhat annoying, he nevertheless found his little brother's popularity a source of constant – if secret – amusement, and occasionally let some of them in. She had been one of the few who would thank him when he did.

But it was the utterly dejected slump of her shoulders that made him slip silently from the tree he was in to the one she sat under rather than the words of gratitude she occasionally sent his way.

He settled above her just in time to hear her last string of mumbled unhappiness.

"But I don't like it when people tell me I'll be fine. How do they know I'll be fine if they don't know how much I've studied or how well I remember the material?"

Then, muttered into her knees, "I _hate_ exams."

And then she was crying, quietly and trying to hide it, but crying nonetheless.

And, unsure yet why he was choosing to act instead of slipping away to find his brother, the young ANBU captain jumped lightly down from the branches.

The girl's reaction when she glanced up, slightly bloodshot jade eyes meeting dark obsidian, was immediate.

She shot to her feet, kunai appearing in her hand from her hip holster, as she backed up to assess the new arrival. And, just as instinctively, Itachi slipped into her path of escape, easily disarming her of the knife as he twisted her about to press her firmly to the tree, facing him. Trained ninja reflexes had still remembered that the girl was a "friend" and not someone to use excessive force on.

The girl stilled her struggles as her eyes met his once more, and widened.

"ANBU-san?"

Itachi mentally winced. In his hurry he'd forgotten to change his ANBU gear for something more casual, and was now probably scaring the girl half to death.

He sighed.

* * *

"I'm not going to hurt you," he said quietly, releasing her. "I just returned from a mission and my instincts are still...close to the surface."

Sakura nodded wordlessly, inexpertly checking for bruises across her wrists. "I-Im sorry I...t-tried to...I was just...n-nervous," she stammered, feeling the adrenaline ebb from her system.

"Hn, the Academy exit exams."

The twelve-year-old swallowed hard. During their brief encounter she had forgotten about the test, but with his quiet words it all came tumbling back. Nervousness in the form of nausea threatened to swamp her, a fine, quivering tremble starting in her hands.

"Look at me."

The command was soft but insistent, the young ANBU beside her fixing her with an expression that brooked no argument. "Look at me."

"Are you afraid?"

Sakura nodded, her throat too tight to speak as she battled the pre-test nerves as well as the intimidation she felt from the quiet boy with the dark hair and dark eyes.

_So familiar..._ They reminded her of someone...she wondered if he was an Uchiha like Sasuke. _The eyes are...similar._

"Have you studied?"

"Y-yes."

"Do you trust yourself?"

About to answer in the affirmative, anything to make this strange, intimidating person go away, her mind ground to a halt.

"What?"

The teenager sighed, though she couldn't tell if he was actually annoyed with her. "Do you trust yourself? It's a simple question," he told her. "Do you trust your mind not to fail you? Do you believe you won't panic when the time comes?"

"I...I don't know," Sakura murmured, shamefaced as her eyes flickered down to the shaded grass at her feet.

His next action surprised her.

Warm fingers gripped her chin, tilting her face up so that she looked into his eyes once more.

"A ninja must trust himself, to know his limits, to believe that he can do the task set to him. Or her," he added belatedly. "It isn't a lesson taught outright at the Academy but one that needs to be learned nonetheless. Ninja can tell one another they will do well on exams, and that is kindness. However, because I suspect you have heard that too much already, I will tell you instead that you will only do as well as your effort and studying allow. Don't expect miracles."

The smile that flashed over his features, there and gone, startled her.

"I prefer to hear those sorts of words myself when preparing for an exam. Maybe one day you will tell them to me yourself."

And then he was gone, disappearing in a small shower of leaves.

"Sakura?"

She jolted out of her reverie to flush at the familiar voice.

"Sasuke-kun!"

"I thought I saw my brother here..." the young Uchiha said bluntly, obviously somewhat uncomfortable to be questioning a member of his fan club but willing nonetheless in the chance that she could confirm the sight he'd seen of his brother.

Sakura only blinked a moment, vaguely surprised that she wasn't being swamped by the cotton-candy soft, pink emotions that usually mobbed her when she saw Sasuke. "I...I don't think I..."

The memory of the teenage boy with his commanding eyes and gentle voice blossomed in her mind.

Her cheeks went crimson.

"M-maybe!" she squeaked, suddenly made breathless by the pounding of her heart. "H-he disappeared...sorry...."

Sasuke "hn'd" in disappointment and turned away. "If you see Itachi-nii again, tell him to stop hiding and just come out instead of skulking around when he's just come home from a mission," he ordered as he walked off.

"Sure...."

Sakura sighed, and smiled. Somehow she wasn't so scared for the exam any more. Her mysterious benefactor had taken away her terror with his soft words, and left her feeling...confident. It was strange and comforting, a knot of surety lodged behind her breastbone.

"Thank you...Itachi-san," she whispered, and darted off to the Academy building as Iruka-sensei called her in.

High in the branches of the tree, still masking his chakra signature as he had with his brother's appearance, Uchiha Itachi smiled, watching the little pink-haired girl disappear into the Academy building before he turned away to ferret out his little brother and wish Sasuke good luck.

"You're welcome...Sakura."

* * *

**Preemptive Question Answering**

I don't think I wrote Itachi too OOC? After all lots of painful unhappy events didn't happen, though you can still tell that Sasuke is one of his most important people still. Sasuke is still pretty blunt and whatnot, but I figure that even without the tragic past he's got a bevy of fangirls and has been compared to Itachi his entire life so he'll still be pretty abrasive.

The story's finished as is ^^ though there IS an epilogue that's being polished up to be posted eventually.

I think Sasuke typically refers to his brother as Aniki, but for the sake of the story and Sakura's not remembering/not knowing Itachi's name, I made him call his brother Itachi-nii instead. Will probably change that in the epilogue....

Anyway, please review! ^^ Authoress thrives on happy feedback cookies!


	2. Epilogue

Non beta'd short and possibly due for a revision in the near future...takes place a year or so after Nerves.

* * *

**Epilogue**

"Aniki…."

"Don't you have training to do today?"

Leaning almost casually against one of the doors lining the entrance hall, Sasuke sighed. "Kakashi-sensei is always late," he replied in explanation, but he took the hint anyway. Itachi wanted to be left alone. Turning to go, he glanced down at his brother who was calmly fastening his sandals as if there wasn't a jounin exam about to be held within the hour.

Not that Sasuke was worried for his ANBU captain brother. Itachi had just never had time between his mission load to seriously consider taking the jounin exam; he'd entered the ANBU soon after his chuunin examination and had stayed there for a good five years until before entering an application for the jounin one.

As if feeling his younger brother's gaze, the elder Uchiha sibling turned, and smiled.

"Don't disgrace the family," Sasuke said, his tone serious but his eyes amused.

The lines of Itachi's face, a small tell that sometimes gave away how stressed he was feeling, softened. "I would never," he replied lightly, and extended a fist to his brother with a small smile.

Sasuke knocked the offered fist with his own, and turned away. "I'll see you tomorrow," he called back as he disappeared.

Itachi chuckled to himself, the sound soft in the deserted entrance hall. "He's grown," the eighteen-year-old mused to himself as he got to his feet. "Even his "good luck"s have grown mature."

A vision of green eyes, verdant as summer maple leaves, flashed through his mind.

Over the last year they had haunted him, more so when he had discovered the identity of their owner. Haruno Sakura had been assigned to his little brother's three-man cell and trained with him and another under Kakashi's tutelage daily. Itachi had discovered that with the new schedule he was seeing his brother less and less in spite of the softening of the ANBU workload to his squad, a somewhat annoying occurrence. But then when Itachi did get to see his brother, around Konoha as well as in the Uchicha compound, it was often with Sakura and Naruto, their other teammate.

And Itachi could not complain; seeing what little of Sakura that he did had become strangely satisfying to him. The small glimpses on the days he greeted his little brother's friends in his mother's stead were like unexpected sweets, to be saved for later and savored at leisure.

And she watched him too, though her glances were few and far between. It was almost as though she didn't remember him, or that she was uncertain of what to make of their singular encounter.

He pushed the thoughts from his mind; with his brother off to train with his team, there was little chance of seeing her today. And he couldn't let his mind stray from the mission at hand; passing the jounin examination.

Held without the fanfare of the chuunin exams, it was a secretive battle held in one of Konoha's most dangerous training grounds, held within a sunken building underground. Very few would assemble there to take the exam, seen off by a few well-wishers among friends and family. Itachi would most likely enter alone. His general dislike for overly reassuring pre-exam words meant that his parents had wished him the best of luck over breakfast, and his friends among the Uchiha compound residents, including his brother, had gotten their own remarks in before he'd left.

It would have seemed a little grim to some, not to have anyone see what could have been his last moments alive in the light, but it was what Itachi preferred….

"Itachi-san!"

The voice was achingly familiar, one he enjoyed hearing when he caught snatches of conversation while idly eavesdropping on his brother, and one he hadn't expected as he waited quietly for the exam proctors to arrive.

"Hello, Sakura, don't you have training to do with my brother?"

The smile that curved her lips trembled only slightly; with mirth or something else he couldn't tell. "Not for another two hours," she told him, eyes dancing. "The newest volume of the Icha Icha series comes out today; Kakashi-sensei pushed training back a few hours."

The emerald eyes hadn't changed, still abundantly verdant with every emotion painted clear in their depths. Relief, a gentle touch of nervousness, and…happiness?

"I-I'm not going to tell you you're going to be fine, Itachi-san," she told him, stuttering only at the first word. "I think…I think you don't expect miracles b-because you've gone on too many missions…." She swallowed, the words lodging in her throat.

He didn't need his intellectual genius to know she was thinking of how sometimes jounin rank candidates entered the exam grounds and didn't walk out again; this mission, like many others he had taken before it, had easily claimed other lives.

"But Sasuke once told us, Naruto and I, about your skill as a ninja. I don't think I need to wish you well after hearing that. Instead, I trust you…to trust in yourself."

Itachi's eyes were gentle, soft as sable instead of their usual bright obsidian hue with which he watched the world. She hadn't meant to say those words perhaps; ones he had said to her similarly a year ago, but she had said them all the same. She was thirteen and so young and earnest that those quiet words almost hurt to accept. A pleasant ache.

"Of course, Sakura, and thank you," he replied, taking a step closer to the girl to close the distance between them. "I will do my best not to break your trust."

The smile she turned to him was sweeter than honey, making his chest grow tight with an emotion he refrained from naming, though it made his heart speed up ever so slightly.

From the corner of his eye, he noticed the arrival of the proctors and felt, for the first time, a reluctance. And though he wished to discard the feeling, with all its uncomfortable implications knotting in his gut, he didn't. Possibly couldn't.

"Good luck, Itachi-san."

He smiled over his shoulder as the small crowd of jounin candidates filtered towards the double doors of the examination training grounds.

"Thank you, Sakura."

END

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Please review ^^ the authoress likes them?


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